


Tainted Future

by HyperKey



Series: Tainted [1]
Category: Metal Gear
Genre: AU, Emotional, Oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-23 04:15:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6104592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyperKey/pseuds/HyperKey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The second of the bonus stories for Tainted Souls. There will be a third though. This one just kind of happened. This takes place Before Tainted Souls.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tainted Future

Sunny dropped to her knees with the telephone still pressed to her ear, a choked sob escaped her before she even realized the words of the woman that had called. Rose could barely speak through her own tears, but obviously it was important enough for the woman to at least tell her.

Hal who had just left the living room to refill his coffee mug frowned in confusion and concern when he saw his _daughter_ on the floor like that. Sobbing, hand gripping her shirt tightly as she fought for words between her sobs. Of course it wasn’t the first time he had seen her cry, however the last time it had been this bad had been almost ten years ago, the girl barely eight at the time.

No fight with him or breakup with boyfriends had ever brought forth a reaction like this from her. She sometimes cried when she thought of her mother, although Hal had learned by now that she cried because she never got to know the woman, not because she missed her.

And now Sunny was sitting there, shaking with tears uttering words of condolences and apologies. Hal felt as if something had stabbed him. Someone had died. Obviously someone close. But who?

Who was still close enough?

Meryl and Johnny? They lived a happy live somewhere in the states, sometimes they called. They weren’t really close.

Mei Ling? She called him frequently, curious about how he was doing, but she wasn’t very close to Sunny. They liked each other, yet a reaction like this would not be right.

One of her friends?

And with a dreadful feeling spreading inside him he slowly walked closer to her. Had something happened to Jack and his family? John often asked for Sunny to visit him. They spent a lot of time together. Hal didn’t want to think that something happened to any of them. They had gone through too much to have it ruined yet again.

Hal put the mug on the coffee table, crouched down in front of the girl. She wasn’t even a girl anymore. Seventeen already. Time passed by so painfully fast.

She looked up, met his blue eyes as hers filled with more and more tears. She flung herself at him, held him tightly. The phone call long ended.

“Sunny-“ Hal tried but she only held him tighter. She was shaking, her cries painful not only to his ears but to his heart. It hurt him to see her cry like this, so full of pain.

“Who… called?” Hal tried again, afraid to ask, but he needed to know who it was in order to react accordingly.

Sunny was silent for a second before she almost screamed, “Rose!” She said it as if he would have known it already, as if the question was unnecessary. As if she tried to blame him for it.

Hal tried not to flinch, wrapped his arms around the girl and gently rocked her while he rubbed her back. His heart was hammering against his chest now too. His feeling had been right, but that didn’t make it any better.

“What happened?”

Sunny tried to answer, her voice drowned by more sobs every time she tried to get the words out. She clawed his back, tried to suppress the tears, tried to breathe calmly but failed. She couldn’t calm down.

Hal’s lips had turned into a thin line, patiently waited for an answer and almost didn’t catch what Sunny was saying when the girl suddenly burst out with one sentence uttered without any pause and in a single quick breath.

“ _Jackisdead_!” She sounded as if she didn’t believe her own words, another sob escaping her.

Hal closed his eyes, knew she was too old and too smart to believe stories about heaven and how he was in a better place now. It had barely worked when Snake had died all these years ago. He wasn’t sure what to say, too shocked himself. He had imaged something happening to John. But Jack lived a dangerous life, it had only been a matter of time.

Hal didn’t quite notice that his eyes had filled with tears until he wiped them away. Jack had been a nice guy. Lots of issues, but a perfectly okay person if one got to know him better.

That Left John without a father. A painful thought for the engineer.

“It hurts…”Sunny whispered tiredly, too exhausted from the onslaught of emotions.

She had been very close to Jack. Sometimes Hal even thought she was in love with him. She was, but on a platonic level, she saw a brother in him. The hero who had saved her.

“I know…” Was all Hal could say.

“…What am I supposed to do…?” she swallowed hard. “…He’s… he’s… oh god…” She pulled away, looked at Hal as if he had an answer. “Hal… he’s… he can’t. Right? H-he can’t…” She grabbed his shoulders and shook him slightly. “Please! He… _not him_! He saved me! He’s…” More tears ran down her cheeks and Hal could only shake his head and pull her into a hug again.

It hurt him more to see her in so much pain than the actual message. The little cheerful girl that was so happy all the time, the young woman who lived her dreams and didn’t let anything or anyone stop her. Seeing her so devastated pained him.

“Why…?” She whispered. “Why did he let this happen?!” Now she screamed, her face twisted with sorrow and anger. “How could he… He’s…. he’s like my brother! He can’t just…”

“I know…” Hal repeated. “I-it’s painful and hard to believe.” He reflected back to when his sister died. He had been devastated, but the mission that still had to be fulfilled overshadowed all his grief. Jack had been there at the time too. Now only he was still there. Hal took in a shaking breath. He needed to calm Sunny down first, could grieve later.

Slowly Sunny pulled away, wiped her tears with her sleeves and grabbed the phone to put it back onto the coffee table. She slowly sat down on the couch, head in her hands, elbows rested on her knees.

Hal waited for a moment longer before he got up as well, sat down next do her. He wasn’t sure what to say, these situations never had a good timing and they were always filled with awkwardness.

“Hal…?” She asked with a hoarse and tear filled voice. “Can we go over to John?”

Hal had nothing against it, however he feared that the time might not be right. “I’ll talk to Rose…”

In the evening when Sunny had fallen asleep in the living room after playing tons of games to forget about her pain he called Rose, wasn’t really surprised that she needed a while to pick up and that her voice sounded tired and annoyed. She had probably been on the telephone all day, making arrangements and everything.

“…Sunny?” She asked weakly.

“Hal.” He answered. “Sunny... asked if she could visit John. I-I know this is a bad time…-“

“No…” Rose whispered. “Come… anything to get him out of his room… I… I’m so busy… I barely have time to think about it…”

“Are you doing alright?” Hal then asked. When Snake had died he had been in a similar situation, yet with Snake everyone had been prepared. Snake himself knew it was going to end soon. This right now was just too sudden to fully grasp it in one day.

“…I’m holding it together…” Rose muttered with a weak chuckle. “Someone has to…”

“I’m sorry about your loss…” Hal finally managed to say, felt as if he didn’t mean it. He was devastated. Another great person lost to the shenanigans of people with too much power.

“We all knew it was gonna happen sooner or later…” Rose sighed. “Doesn’t make it hurt any less though.”

“Of course not.”

“I guess you wanted to head to bed, huh?” She asked silently.

Hal shook his head to himself. “There’s no way I can sleep in this state…”

“Can I talk to you for a while then…?”

“Sure…”

He heard her sigh, then something that sounded like the flick of a lighter. Oh how he dreaded that sound. He heard her blow the smoke out, then another sigh.

“I… just need someone to listen… I haven’t even called everyone yet… It’s so painful to repeat the same lines over and over again… I need to pick his things up too… see him again… what’s…” her voice shuddered and she stopped talking for a moment. “…See what’s left of him… what they’re willing to give to us…”

“…What do you mean?”

Rose sighed once more. “A head, Hal… he’s…. that’s all that’s left of him… there’s no way they’d give us the body to bury… way too expensive.”

“That’s cruel.”

She scoffed. “Cruel…” Once more she dragged on the cigarette, waited long before she replied. “Cruel are those who didn’t want him to work at their peaceful places for shallow reasons like appearance…”

“Yeah…” He agreed even though he wasn’t entirely sure what Rose was talking about.

“Who am I kidding…” She chuckled. “He liked it… That’s where he could let lose… ignore morals, do what he wanted… and still he was a wreck every time he came hone… How’s Sunny doing? I didn’t mean to shock her like that…”

“She’s dealing with it…” Hal sighed. “Broke all my high scores on the NES… took me years to get them I think she cheated…”

Rose didn’t reply right away, instead Hal heard her sniff away some tears.  “She’s a strong girl…”

“How’s John taking it?”

“Locked himself in his room and doesn’t talk… He’s blasting metal on max volume for hours now… His way of dealing.“

“You know more about this than I do.” Hal shrugged.

“Some just need to be alone. Like John. Some need to talk, like me.”

“Not even counselors are safe from this, huh?” His weak attempt at a joke sounded even more pathetic than he had feared.

“It’s hard to apply these things to yourself… It involves you directly, you can’t distance yourself.” Rose explained.

“I see…”

“You’ll come… to the funeral I mean?”

“Of course…” Hal immediately answered. “That’s the least I can do…”

“I wish this was just a nightmare…” Rose laughed without any humor in it. “God I’m sounding like him…” She sighed yet again. “It’s so absurd and cruel… Death is hard to deal with… I give these people advice on how to deal with it all the time… but it’s so different now…”

Hall nodded into the half lit room. “Dave said something similar.”

“You lost so many people, I feel bad bothering you with this.” Rose muttered.

“Don’t… I cared about him too. He was a great person…”

When Rose didn’t reply Hal wasn’t sure if he had said something bad. “I… I mean- from what I know-“

“You’re right…” Rose whispered, battling tears. “He… tried so hard to be a good father, a good husband… I’m sorry Hal… I need to get some things done. Thank you for listening…”

Hal sighed deeply when Rose ended the call without waiting for his reply, but understood that she tried hard to hide that she was crying.

The man settled down next to Sunny, carefully rummaged around the mess of controllers and games cases Sunny had left on the ground after bringing every console they owned to the living room. Soon enough he found the only game he ever got Snake to play with him. But it wasn’t what he was looking for.

Years ago he had noticed that Jack didn’t dislike video games. He had always just assumed that the cyborg just wasn’t the type for games like these. Yet when John and Sunny talked him into playing with them, they had complained about losing all the time. John had then told Hal that his father often played video games by himself.

Hal sighed, noticed he couldn’t find the game he was looking for. He stood to get it, but gently pried the controller out of Sunny’s hands before that, didn’t want her to get tangled in the cable of the ancient thing. When he pulled the blanket over her and carefully stroked her hair, he noticed she had fallen asleep with the game he was looking for in her arms.

Hal smiled weakly and headed into the kitchen to get some more coffee and work on the project he had started not too long ago.

They would get used to it. Realize that there was no way of changing it and that they just had to deal with it.

Maybe he should call Mei Ling.


End file.
